In the dead of winter a few years ago, two Eskimo women, mother and
daughter, were starving in their Igloo on the shores of Baffin Land. The
rest of the tribe had gone inland searching for caribou. The older
woman, who was lame, had been left behind with her daughter to look
after her. They had been provided with a supply of food but the hunters
were late in coming back and it had dwindled, little by little, to
nothing. In the end the two women had killed and eaten the only dog that
had remained with them. They were now helpless, waiting for death,
without food of any sort, without fishing tackle and without firearms.
The third day after they had eaten their last scrap of dog meat, the
younger woman caught sight of a large seal which was lying on the ice,
parallel to the shore about two miles off. The floe had moved a little.
Long lanes of clear water had opened up enabling the seal to climb out.
It was resting with its head on the edge of the pan ready to dive at the
first sign of danger.
To the starving women the seal, weighing four hundred pounds, meant food
and life. Their only weapons were a knife and a hatchet. The daughter
decided to stalk the seal while the mother, holding the hatchet,
squatted on the beach and watched.
To that effect the younger woman, knife in hand, walked along the beach
for about three miles. After that, certain to be far enough behind the
quarry not to be seen, she walked out on the ice the same distance as it
was from shore. Having reached that point, she began stalking the seal
in earnest.
It lay with its hind flippers towards her, but every minute or so it
would raise its head for a few seconds to scan the horizon. Then the
woman, crawling on her hands and knees, would have to remain motionless,
lying flat on the ice. Little by little she crept nearer, using every
small pinnacle, every little ridge and rough edge of the pans, as a
shield.
She was already weak from hunger. The constant strain began to tell on
her. The nearer she crawled to the animal, the longer she had to rest
and regain her breath. Seals have good ears. The slightest sound of
panting would have driven the animal head first into the water.
It took her all day to cover the two miles. During all that time she was
in agony at the thought that the seal, tired of dozing, would dive into
the sea again before she could reach it. Still, she could not take the
risk of hurrying.
Finally, only four feet separated her from the quarry. With the superb
self control of the savage she waited several minutes, then, when the
seal lowered its head again on the pan, she sprung at it, driving her
knife clear through the hind flippers deep into the ice.
With the whole weight of her body thrown on the handle she remained
there, pinning the huge animal on the floe. As long as the knife held,
the seal, head and shoulders over the edge, could not dive. The
infuriated animal tried to turn around and baring its cruel fangs,
snapped at her. Its bulk was so huge that the yellow teeth just failed
to reach her face.
For an hour the woman and the beast strained against one another.
Meanwhile the mother, who had been keeping watch on the shore, was
hobbling over the ice towards them in a frenzy of excitement. She knew
that her daughter’s strength would have to give way sooner or later and
that the time had now come for her to hasten to the rescue.
Screaming shrilly, scrambling from pan to pan, she covered the distance
as fast as she could in spite of her lameness. When she reached the seal
she attacked it fearlessly. With a few shrewd blows of her hatchet on
the head, she dropped it dead in its tracks. Just in time, for her
daughter’s hands, bleeding and frozen, were already slipping on the
knife’s handle and relaxing their hold.
[Illustration: Fighting against starvation]